Age of Pieces: Ascending the Tower of the Grimm Witch
by OmniGawker
Summary: "I've let this gone too far. Must find a way to fix this." ... "Perhaps she could help? Yes, yes she could! But first, must get some things for her to be of any help at all."


Within a dark room filled with bits of shattered bones and huddled skeletons covered in most blackened grime that was once flesh their gaping jaws screaming silently to the heavens as they lay there in their rusted shackles. The walls were covered in splatterings and splotches of near black red.

Yet at the end of this room of death and decay there was a waning flame of life in the form of a deathly pale young woman garbed in tattered rags and dirty yellow bandages that had splotches of brownish-red. Her emaciated chest rose and fell with shallow breathes as she hung from her wrists, the rusting metal digging in.

Her eyes were wrapped with yellowed and bloodied bandages.

Broken is all that could be said about her.

Then there was a small and brief flash of green light that came from a pair of glowing goggles as a cloaked, hunched over, masked man seemingly materialized into existence.

The goggles turned a wary white as the man cautiously looked around before they shifted to a soft blue when he laid eyes on the woman. His lone arm reached into his cloak before he walked up to her.

"You poor thing," He took out his hand before gingerly laying it on the bandages on her face, his thumb caressing the left eye socket, "I can bring them back but first I must-"

The sudden sound of the chamber door's latches being unlocked behind them caused the goggled man to whip his head back and his glowing lenses flashed a dark green before he vanished in a small gust of air.

The chamber doors opened and in walked a man with a mechanical scorpion tail that curled and uncurled in anticipation with slight clicks and whirrs in every motion and whose wide grin was filled to the brim with needles.

The Scorpion Man stopped only a breath away from the woman before he clasped his hands to his chest and breathed in and out with shudder.

"Oh it has only been a week since it was just you and me and my stinger," He slowly caressed the woman beneath her chin with the bladed tip of his tail, "But it's felt like an eternity," his eyes roamed over her bandaged body, his tail pressing in the underside, "So where were we?"

The grin vanished as the man tensed and straightened out retracting his tail all the while. What replaced the grin was a rather petulant pout; a small groan could be heard from the back of his throat.

"The Goddess calls for me but," he leaned in and whispered into the woman's ear, "We'll have our playtime again soon enough." With that, he left the dungeon chuckling all the while.

The green flash of light came again and the masked man rematerialized in to existence with a bowed head and a fidgeting hand.

"I'm sorry for just standing there," he bowed deeply, the lenses were dark shade of blue, "Couldn't risk getting caught," the lenses turned tanned brown, "Not yet at least," he straightened up and the lenses were a soft blue again, "But let me take those shackles and bandages off," they turned a fiery red and he flicked a tiny fireball from the tip of his finger to the chains melting them and stepped forward to catch the falling woman.

The masked man gently propped her up on his knee as he kneeled, "Now, breathe slowly," and reached into his cloak again to pull out a small white berry, "Here, eat this it'll help you get your strength back."

The berry was pressed into the woman's mouth and she slowly chewed it, its bitter yet sweet juices swam over her tongue and pooled up in her mouth before she swallowed.

Almost immediately, her breath hitched as her pallor gradually turned a healthy light pink and her emaciated form became fully lithe once again.

Then she felt her spine tingle at the sensation coming from her eye sockets when they were wracked with a pulsating strain as something warm and moist grew within them.

The masked man's lenses became a warm brownish-black as he sat her up, giving her a soft rub on the shoulder as she gasped and grunted, "There there give it a few more moments," the gasping and grunting stopped followed a shuddering breath, "See? What I say? You're mostly better now. I just need to do," the man's lenses turned gray as he slipped a finger underneath the bandages at the back of her head, "This."

With a flick of a finger the bandages fell away to reveal a pair of silver eyes. Her breath hitched again as she slowly reached up to them and gingerly pressed her fingers onto them. She looked to the man with blinking wet eyes.

The masked man nodded and his gray lenses flashed a dark purple when he asked with a slightly tilted head, "Now, do you remember who you are and why you're here?"

She made to speak only to close her mouth with a slight click of her teeth.

"Then perhaps this will jog your memories," he took out a rectangular box that was wrapped in a thick red cloth adorned with a few trinkets and other colored cloths and placed it on her lap.

She looked at the box for a moment and then turned to him with a slight upraised eyebrow.

His lenses flashed yellow, "I'll give you time," he patted the box and then stood up, "go ahead, take it," he took a few steps backwards and bowed slightly, "They'd want you to."

With that, his lenses turned a dark green before he disappeared yet again.

The Silver Eyed woman looked over the box for a few moments before slowly unwrapping it, taking in the details of the cloths, metals, and trinkets all the while.

The cloths and metals were a well torn and scorched red sash, a pair of faded pink fingerless gloves, a golden edged white shoulder pauldron, an emerald dagger with half of a blade and a sheared pink bow.

The trinkets comprised of a tiara-like hairband that was shaped like icicles, a one-strapped holster with a small magnetic clip, and a pair of yellow-rimmed aviators that had the glasses smashed out.

But what really caught her eyes was a silver cross with a tarnished sheen that had a chain running through one of its arms.

It was then that something within her clicked back into place so she donned the items and pulled a familiar switch on the box.

The box whirred and clicked as it extended outwardly to the sides with a growing shaft between the halves. A small segmented blade popped out of the right side. The near middle formed a boxy trigger-handle. The left side meanwhile was flicked outward as another segmented blade grew out and connected to form a blade twice the size of her forearms.

Thus the box became a scythe that was more than thrice her size. And it was also a gun.

She then took another good look at the wrapping; a red cloak that had lost its hood and it would be more appropriate to call it an unusually big rag.

She donned that too and hefted up her scythe as she wobbly stood up.

The chamber doors opened slightly and with a deep breath she took the first step forward and upwards.


End file.
